Unit 9

• Unit 9 in the AP World History curriculum covers the 20th century, with the theme of globalization
• Part 1: How science and technology unifies the globe and facilitates social and economic advancement

  1. New technology eliminating geographic barriers

  2. Medical innovations improving length and quality of life

  3. Technology facilitating a global popular culture

  4. Technology allowing historically oppressed groups to unite and push for advancement
• Radio


  Invention of commercial radio that could be used in people's homes, around the beginning of the 20th century
• Instant messaging (AIM)


  Early form of online chat and communication in the 90s
• iPhone


  Smartphone released by Apple in 2006
• Eliminating barriers of communication

  • Radio allowing people across the country/world to listen to the same thing
  • Television uniting nations and creating unified culture
  • Internet and instant messaging allowing instantaneous communication
• Eliminating barriers of transportation


  • More efficient shipping methods like large containers
  • Increased air travel
• Many medical innovations came out of necessity due to global health crises
• Vaccinations


  Developments like polio, smallpox, measles vaccines
• Birth control


  Developments like the pill, giving women more control
• Treatments for HIV/AIDS


  Developed after the AIDS epidemic started in the 1980s
• The "Spanish Flu" pandemic of 1918 actually started in Kansas, not Spain
• Technology is facilitating the spread of a global popular culture, often centered around American/Western culture
• Examples of global popular culture

  • Hollywood films
  • Social media
  • Mega sporting events
  • Global food and clothing trends
• Technology is allowing historically oppressed groups to unite and push for advancement
• Examples of historically oppressed groups uniting

  • African diaspora leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey
  • Liberation theology in Latin American Catholicism
  • Reservation quota system in India
  • Women's suffrage movement
  • Dismantling of apartheid in South Africa
• Science and technology brought enormous change from 1900 to the present
• Science and technology unified people and created societal, economic, and cultural advancement
• Science and technology accelerated economic growth by extending the economy from states to a global network of exchange
• Established global trade routes became more efficient and advanced due to science and technology
• There is a global economic hierarchy that divides states between developed and developing
• New energy technology like oil had a similar impact to what steam did for the industrial revolution
• The Green Revolution, led by scientist Norman Borlaug, used technology to grow crops more abundantly and efficiently
• The Green Revolution had its origins in Mexico and India
• Globalization and the growth of the global economy created a worldwide hierarchy of states
• Knowledge economies


  States that industrialized first, now focused on the service industry, technology, and research and development
• Knowledge economies tend to push for free trade and economic liberalization
• Free trade agreements like NAFTA and the EU aim to create free trade zones across regions
• Research and development is now spread globally, with headquarters in knowledge economies and campuses around the world
• A global market emerged by the end of the 20th century, enabled by technology like eBay
• A global middle class is rising, with states producing goods for the global market
• Multinational corporations use the global supply chain, similar to how European empires used colonies
• Rapid economic advancement and technological change have led to massive global inequality
• Conflicts are increasingly driven by scarcity of natural resources
• The distribution of global wealth is highly unequal, with North America holding the largest share
• The 20th and 21st centuries have seen a shift from conflicts over land and religion to conflicts over resources for economic survival
• 1900 to present